Is this really a good thing?

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

They could put in an earnings rule for the Preakness and Belmont. Something like "preference given to horses with $0 earned in any race. Second preference given to maiden winners only. Any winners of races other than maiden or maiden claiming races, not eligible." Something like that would be perfect.

Look, you don't want to give it away. You want to make them earn it. Affirmed had to beat Alydar three times. Sunday Silence would have had to beat Easy Goer three times. Alysheba over Bet Twice three times. I think ideally, you'd want to believe that at some point in the three races, a TC winner would have had to beat the best challenger out there. He didn't get that chance in the Derby.

exactly. keeping good horses out to guarantee a win would be more detrimental. it would be a hollow victory and the 'winner' would be a paper tiger. people aren't dumb-they'd know what they had seen was a fraud. that would be worse than the type of stuff we had yesterday. the preakness had more buzz than i've seen in years, since in years' past so many skipped the second race to freshen for the belmont. having rachel will create buzz for the race in three weeks. will she or won't she? will the derby winner show up to try again? it's great stuff.